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SaveOurBucks.com Billboard Project

Hey guys-

A group of us Bucks fans are raising money to put up a billboard on I-94 promoting a tank to the Top-5. We just started accepting donations tonight and already raised over $1,500. Please feel free to contribute as well as spread the word to fellow Bucks fans.

Also, please visit our site SaveOurBucks.com for more about our movement.

Sorry man, I;m not a tanker personally. However we might just be bad enough the way it is to actually get a top 5 pick. Problem is then it's up to our "golden" front office to make the correct pick, which is were the troubles lie...

We need to get smart and frat Marcus Smart...

_____________
" Failure is only defined by someone's perception of what failing is."-His Airness

Tanking is a raging issue. Sportswriters with nothing better to do like to harangue the league for the trend of teams setting themselves up to have poor seasons in order to increase their lottery odds and get a higher draft pick. It's been called a plague, as if no bad basetball exists outside those teams who tank. (I would ask them to look around the Eastern Conference right now and see how that theory checks out.)

One team that has consistently bucked (get it, bucked?) the idea of tanking has been Milwaukee. Owner Herb Kohl doesn't believe in it, and honestly, there are questions about the financial results if the team were to truly go into the tank and give the fans no reason to come. One group of fans, however, with an eye on the future and an understanding of market dynamics as well as the reality of the arena situation in Milwaukee, has a proposal. Give in. Lose. We'll stand by you, if you go out and get a piece of this draft. They've created a petition to tell the team to tank and pledge their support should they do so.

In order for the Bucks to regain their footing with the fans and the community, they need to drastically improve the product on the court. As we have seen with the Packers in 1992 and the Brewers in 2004, moribund franchises can be turned around quickly. The Bucks can be a successful small market franchise both on the court and financially. However, for the Bucks to do this, they need to change their approach. One way to help change this approach is if the fan base can let the organization know that they will support a full rebuilding of the team under a new front office direction. This means being willing to part with high-priced journeymen veteran players and focus on building around young talent acquired with high draft picks. The talent rich 2014 NBA draft is the place to start.

via Save Our Bucks.com Billboard Project | Indiegogo.

The group is raising money for a billboard, to actually tell the team to lose.

This is both hilarious, and cool. That takes a smart set of fans to understand that.

This is often made into a morality issue, both in the sense of the spirit of competition and in terms of rewarding teams for what is considered to be failure. But in reality, it's just the slash and burn nature of many cyles in life and business. You want a new building on your lot? Tear the old one down first. This draft class is worth it.

The good news is that the Bucks are doing a great job tanking without trying to. They're 2-11 and coming off blowout losses to Detroit and Charlotte. But the payroll isn't made for tanking. At some point, Kohl won't have much choice but to accept trading off the contracts on roster and get ready for June's draft. A hit there could save professional basketball. But that's the rub with the lottery. Falling out of even the top four could mean more mediocre-to-bad basketball for the city's future, and nothing but a lost season to show for it.

Soon-to-be-Commissioner Adam Silver said in the preseason that the issue of a new arena in Milwaukee, something taxpayers have resisted, is vital for the team's future in the city.

These decisions aren't easy, but I can applaud these fans for facing the reality of the system and getting out in front of what are likely to be questions about Milwaukee's long-term viability as an NBA city.

For one, the website's creators — including a mystery man funding the operation — say the franchise is run poorly. Worse, SaveOurBucks says, "the team has faded from the public interest because the team roster and results have been uninspiring to the local fan base and community," according to the group's executive summary.

"For decades, the Bucks have employed a very chaotic management structure that consists of a number of longtime front office people, supplemented by whoever are the head coach and general manager at the time. All of these individuals have some degree of decision-making power, which is either supported or vetoed by the owner, (former) Sen. (Herb) Kohl, on a case-by-case basis."

The group's spokesman, Paul Henning, is a Bucks fan who attends several games a year. But speaking for the group, he doesn't mince words about the Bucks, whose 6-22 currently is the worst record in the National Basketball Association.

"There's some things that need to be said that some people don't want to hear," Henning said Tuesday. "We want to shine a light and we want them to be held accountable."

There is hope, Henning said. Kohl's recent announcement that he had hired a New York investment firm to find new investors for the Bucks, coupled with a renewed community discussion involving a possible new, multipurpose arena are positive developments, Henning said.

"We're not calling for anyone to be fired," Henning said. "We're not saying Herb Kohl must go. He is critical to how this plays out, as is the business community."

There is little known about the man who started the website. That person has not publicly identified himself, and has asked Henning to speak for the group. Henning says he's never met the man, but says he is a season-ticket holder from Milwaukee.

There is an international flavor to the SaveOurBucks movement. Henning says a third person who created the website is from Australia. He became a Bucks fan when Andrew Bogut, a native of Australia, played in Milwaukee and continues to watch and follow them. But the brains behind the site and its ultimate goal — saving the Bucks — prefers to remain anonymous.

"People need to read the entire website or at least the executive summary to understand that the site's goal is to try and bring some accountability to the Bucks for the poor way the front office (and by extension Sen. Kohl) have managed the team the past two decades as it relates to the product on the court," the mystery man behind SaveOurBucks.com wrote in an email to the Journal Sentinel.

Henning separately noted, "We're at a crossroads right now."

He may be right. In a season where the most national publicity the Bucks have gotten involved problems with a Robert Indiana-inspired court surface and a bar fight involving Bucks center Larry Sanders, there is nowhere to go but up.

The group has mostly operated under the radar until recently when it raised enough money from Bucks' fans to put up a billboard at the corner of W. McKinley Ave. and I-43. With a photo of lottery balls in the background, the caption left little to the imagination: "Winning takes balls."

That was SaveOurBucks' not so subtle suggestion that the Bucks need to keep losing to position themselves to get a high draft pick next summer during the NBA draft.

The billboard's message was picked up by Deadspin, the irreverent sports-based website, and SaveOurBucks suddenly had a much bigger following.

"We wanted to make a statement and get the message out," Henning said. "Free agency has not been kind to the Bucks."

Fan turnout hasn't been great, either. The Bucks currently rank 28th out of 30 teams in attendance, drawing an average of 14,139 fans per game. That's a drop of nearly 900 fans a game from last season.

The reason for the lower turnout is simple, says the anonymous head of SaveOurBucks. "We've been beaten down with a terrible product and a front office that has terrible basketball plans that make no sense."

At the same time, he said, local media have not scrutinized the Bucks to any great extent.

John Steinmiller, executive vice president for business operations, said the franchise was aware of SaveOurBucks.

"We value them, and we are aware of them," Steinmiller said. "We don't always agree with the manner of expression or all of the message but they share the senator's plan that he laid out recently to keep the Bucks in Milwaukee.

"We certainly will follow their progress. I hope they follow our progress accurately and responsibly."

Steinmiller said Kohl is committed to building a team around a young core of talent, managing the salary cap well and drafting wisely.

It is sad that 4/5ths of Bucks fans understand that we need to tank yet it seems like management just figured it out this year.

While I agree, the draft has been nice to the Bucks in recent years getting Larry, Henson and Giannis in the very late lottery. I still think Hammond and Kohl are idiots but their scouts are doing a good job.